


Intruders

by LdyBastet



Series: Shikaku - A Sense of Assassins [8]
Category: Jrock, the GazettE
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Assassins, Barebacking, Hurt/Comfort, Light Bondage, Love Hotel, M/M, Murder, Serious Injuries, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:34:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23414635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LdyBastet/pseuds/LdyBastet
Summary: In a slightly different Tokyo, some time in the future, a string of violent murders turns out to be a threat that has to be taken care of. Kai and Uruha end up working together to solve the mystery behind it, but sometimes not everything goes smoothly even for trained assassins...
Relationships: Kai/Uruha (the GazettE)
Series: Shikaku - A Sense of Assassins [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/541657
Comments: 46
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the GazettE or PSC, and have no knowledge of what is happening in their lives, apart from what is revealed in interviews and on Twitter. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real events or people is purely coincidental. No disrespect is intended and I earn no money from this.

Kai frowned as he read the headline in the newspaper, coffee cup pausing on the way to his mouth. A body had been pulled out of Tokyo Bay. Again. The article revealed a few details, the ones that the police had been willing to reveal, or that they hadn't had time to hide, like the man's name and occupation. Apparently he'd been found with his wallet intact, so a robbery gone wrong was out of the question. Kai knew the man. He'd been working as a bodyguard for a well-known politician, so the whole thing was suspicious. Especially since the reason Kai knew him was that they'd trained together at the Guild.

Even more suspicious was that this was the fourth body in ten days, the fourth well-dressed man in their mid-30's with an athletic build that had been pulled out of the water with a slit throat. It was starting to look more like executions and Kai didn't like it. Something was going on in the city, something new, something sinister. 

He sipped at his coffee and thought back to the previous headlines, trying to recall the details of those cases. This recent one, Kai knew it was someone with the same training and expertise as he, someone with the same skills, so how had he ended up with his throat slit? And the others? Kai hadn't recognised them from the small, grainy photos in the newspaper, but perhaps they all had something in common?

He wasn't entirely surprised when he got a text message on his phone. _Dad is ill and wants to see you urgently. Can you come for lunch today at noon?_

It was not a text from a family member, and his father was not ill. Kai was an only child and his parents were divorced; he hadn't seen his father in years and didn't care to either. What it did mean, however, was that Kai had an urgent meeting at the Guild.

"Haru!"

A few seconds later, the door opened and Kai's young assistant looked in. "Yes, boss?"

"I'm going out for lunch today, a little early."

"Okay!"

"Do you have the information I asked for yesterday?" Statistics, figures on the profits of a number of companies that the organisation might want to acquire, as well as the names and addresses of every person on the boards of directors.

"Yeah, just got it all together in this file for you," Haru said with a smile and stepped inside to put a flash drive on Kai's desk. "Do you want paper copies too?"

Kai shook his head. "No, it's all right. I'll let you know if I need anything else." He pocketed the flash drive as he stood up, straightened his tie and buttoned his jacket. He wanted to look tidy when he faced the Guild.

**

It was a gaudy building at the end of the street, situated at the corner. On one side was a fairly busy district with bars and restaurants (and the occasional illegal club), and on the other, an area mostly filled with office buildings. And there at the corner rose this bizarre structure with its mix of Western medieval architecture and modern chrome details, a neon sign at the top proclaiming far and wide in huge blinking katakana: "Gothic Love". The pink heart frame was particularly obnoxious, Kai thought.

This early in the day there weren't a lot of people frequenting the love hotel, but at times it could be bustling with activity, every room in the upper levels occupied by salarymen and their mistresses and everyday couples who needed a few hours away either from their kids or their parents and in-laws to get a little pleasure in their lives. Kai stepped inside and nodded at the elderly lady sitting behind the reception desk. He knew that not a single detail went past her keen eyes and that she would be able to recall the faces of every person who'd come through those doors the last two years, at least. 

"Hello Kai," she said with a smile.

"Hello, Miyuki-san," Kai replied. "How are the knees?" It was the reason she'd taken the reception job. When the arthritis had made it too painful to stay in active duty, the Guild had offered her a knee replacement surgery, but she'd said that she'd rather not have any artificial parts, and be of use like this. She knew who pretty much everyone was, and also who they slept with, who they were married to, and what kinks they were into. Pretty useful when you needed dirt on someone for a little light blackmailing.

"Same old. I manage. But I think there'll be rain later today or tomorrow; it's what the old joints tell me."

Kai smiled and headed for the elevator at the back. Where he was going, he didn't need a key. "I'll remember to take an umbrella!" The doors closed in front of him, shutting out the reception area. He pressed his hand against the plaque that stated how many people were allowed in the elevator. The whole thing lit up from behind and his hand was scanned. There was a low beep, and he had five seconds to enter the correct code on the number pad that for other people was simply the buttons for the different floors.

The elevator started moving smoothly, silently. Not upwards, towards the various rooms, but downwards, to the basement floor and beyond. Kai checked his watch - three minutes to twelve - he was on time.

Kai stepped out into a small open area with corridors stretching left and right, and in front of him were the doors that led to the training hall that also doubled as an assembly hall. One of the doors was ajar, and he pushed it open to step inside. 

Three people stood lined up, shoulder to shoulder, at the front of the hall and Kai joined them. He could hear a faint ding from the elevator outside and soon another person joined the line next to Kai. A quick glance to the side revealed that the almost-but-not-quite-late arrival was Uruha. He flashed a grin at Kai and then they waited in silence, Uruha chewing gum.

After no more than half a minute, the man they'd been waiting for entered the hall through a side door and stood before them. Ryûden-sensei was a small, elderly man but he was as deadly as they came. There were reasons why he was the head of the Assassins' Guild, after all. He looked them over, critical eyes appraising them before he spoke.

"We have a problem," he began. "As you may have seen on the news, there's been a string of violent deaths. Slit throats and bodies dumped in the sea. What they haven't said on the news, and what the police probably doesn't know, is that they were all highly trained Guild members."

There was the connection that Kai had been wondering about. And it only made the whole situation that much more puzzling and worrying. Something like this just shouldn't happen - assassins being assassinated! 

"There's a new player in the city, and it looks like they've started to pick us off, one by one. I've called you here because each and every one of you were the best in your class, and I have a mission for you." Ryûden-sensei looked grim, his shoulders squared. "We need to know if they're just trying to get a foothold in the city and they chose these four for some reason, or if they're actually intending to take over from us, replace us."

The tension in the air had thickened. No one else said anything, but Kai could sense the energy around him, the readiness to spring into action. 

"And either way," Ryûden-sensei continued, "this threat has to be contained and eliminated. This is our city. No one kills professionally in our city without our permission."

Kai nodded. This was their turf, and the Guild had a reputation to maintain, or they'd start losing clients. Why would anyone be hiring a skilled, Guild-trained assassin for a job if there was someone else? People usually didn't understand the value of skill and knowledge, and would hire the cheapest option. The number of staged accidents and suicides would dwindle, and the number of crudely slit throats, stab wounds, and bashed in heads would increase. 

"This is the information we have right now about all the victims," Ryûden-sensei said as he handed each of them a thin binder. "Investigate everything you can, work together or alone, and report back to me with what you've found out. I know that some of you are working for rival employers at the moment, so you have to put that aside and remember that your first allegiance lies with the Guild."

Uruha nudged Kai's shoulder, and grinned at him. "That's us," he whispered. "At least we're not at each others' throats."

Kai smiled inwardly. There had been several times when Uruha had literally held Kai by the throat and squeezed until he'd been close to passing out. Kai hadn't found it unpleasant at all, on the contrary. "Yeah, we know how to cooperate," he replied softly. It wouldn't be the first time Kai had worked together with others in a team of sorts - it had been part of the training - but he'd mostly worked alone since he'd graduated. 

"Good luck. And be careful. This is not a regular enemy we're dealing with. I don't need to tell you that these were not careless, unskilled men, and yet, they ended up in the bay."

On the way out, Uruha touched Kai's arm. "How about we go over the information together?"

"Sure." Kai nodded. It was a good idea. Maybe they could find connections and leads easier combining their efforts. Two minds thought better than one...

When they reached the reception area again, Uruha went straight up to Miyuki-san and gave her a charming smile. "You don't happen to have a free room, do you? We need to go over a few things... in private."

"As a matter of fact, I do," she replied with a smile of her own, getting a key card out of a drawer. The card had the logo of the love hotel on it, and it looked as garish there as it did on the building. "Third floor. Room 304, the Star Room."

When they got inside it, Kai looked around. "Okay, so she wasn't kidding. This really is a star room."

The floor was covered in a rug with depictions of various star constellations, figures of mythology (Greek, Kai thought, weren't most star signs taken from Greek mythology?) with stars on top of them - a star at the elbow, a star on the brow, a star on the pitcher one of them held...The walls were a dark blue with a band of silver stars going all the way around the room, and the ceiling, the ceiling was dark as well and covered with stars laid out as the night sky in the winter. It was somehow a lot more stylish than Kai had expected.

"And it comes with free wine too, and a shower!" Uruha said, gesturing to a door before he poured two glasses for them. "Mm, not bad actually." He sipped from one while holding the other out for Kai to take.

Kai deliberately ignored the huge bed and the pleasures it promised and sat down on the couch instead. "I don't need a shower. Let's look at the information." He set the glass down on the little table in front of it and opened the folder. There were details about every aspect of the murdered men - their training and specialties, everywhere they'd worked and what they'd done for their employers, as well as any personal relationships. Not unsurprisingly, all men had been single. One of them had a sister.

"There has to be some connection." Uruha looked at the pages, one by one. 

"Or, there is no connection between them, except that they were assassins and worked for powerful people."

Uruha nodded. "So the connection might very well be there instead. Yeah... that makes sense." They made some notes, circled things that looked interesting or that stood out. When they were done, they had a list of things they agreed were worth investigating further. 

They divided the list between them, then Uruha sat back and smiled at Kai. "So. What's your sign?"

"Sign?" At first Kai didn't get what he was referring to, but then Uruha gestured in the direction of the constellation rug and the stars on the ceiling. "Oh. I don't know... Scorpio, maybe? Do you actually believe in stuff like that?" Kai hadn't taken Uruha for a superstitious guy.

"No. But I've heard it's really big overseas. What's your blood type?"

Kai laughed. "So now we're switching over to blood type theory?"

"Well, yeah. I just want to know if we get along with each other. Type AB is too complex for me, just so you know." Uruha winked and Kai couldn't help but shake his head. It was funny how things just seemed to jump into Uruha's head sometimes.

"Well, I'm type B."

"Ah, so that's why the sex is so good then. We are very... compatible." Uruha leaned in slowly, then paused just inches away from Kai's face.

Kai forced himself to keep breathing normally, despite his pulse speeding up a fraction. Uruha's lips were so close, almost within kissing distance... He wondered, not for the first time, what the hell was wrong with his self-control when it came to this man. Then again, he had to admit that Uruha was pretty special. When Uruha didn't move, Kai pulled him in for that kiss he was so obviously teasing him with.

Uruha's lips were warm and soft, and when Kai deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue between those lush lips, he found that Uruha tasted faintly of mint. A little half-moan came from Uruha as he moved closer, grabbing Kai's hair at his neck and pulling slightly at it. It didn't hurt, but it reminded Kai of every damn time he'd been in a position where Uruha'd had the upper hand and Kai had been rendered powerless in some way, and a small shiver went down his spine, settling at the base where it spread out and caused his cock to harden. 

"Well," Kai whispered when they finally broke apart, "we do have the room... Might as well use it."

"The bed looks nice," Uruha added, smiling. 

They moved across the room, and in the course of closing the distance to the bed they'd managed to pull their clothes off each other. There was no need for niceties, no reason to dance around the issue - they both knew what they wanted. Yet, when Uruha let Kai push him down onto his back on the bed and looked up at him and whispered, "Fuck me," Kai was a little surprised, and pleasantly so. Usually it was Uruha who just took what he wanted, not that Kai had ever complained about that. 

"With pleasure," he responded and kissed Uruha again, hands roaming all over his body, exploring firm muscles and soft skin, until he reached Uruha's cock, standing hard and proud between his legs. He grabbed it in his hand and squeezed it, making Uruha moan and arch up under him. He looked absolutely delicious, Kai thought - blond hair spread around his face, pouty lips parted, eyes dark with arousal, and a body that was all Kai's now... With a low growl, he rolled Uruha over and spread his legs. "I'll fuck you so hard that you can't think," he whispered darkly.

"Good." Uruha pushed his hips up and pulled his knees in under him, exposing his arse and waited for Kai's next move. Within seconds, Kai had Uruha's hands tied behind his back, using the belt for one of the yukata that lay neatly folded on a small table between the bed and the door to the shower.

Even though his cock twitched with impatience, Kai took a short moment to enjoy the lovely view that Uruha had presented him with. As he reached for the bowl of lube sachets on the bedside table, he couldn't resist the temptation of sinking his teeth into one of those pale buttocks. Uruha groaned but was otherwise holding still as Kai lubed up and then lined up behind him. With both hands grabbing Uruha's hips and his thumbs holding his buttocks apart a little, Kai slowly pushed his cock into him, savouring every second, every inch that he sank deeper and deeper, feeling Uruha's body open up to him. 

Watching his cock slide in and out of Uruha's arse only made Kai hornier, and the sounds Uruha made didn't help either. Kai increased his thrusting, turning Uruha's soft moans into a staccato as he fucked him hard. He slid his hands up over Uruha's lithe body, grabbing his bound arms with one hand and burying the other in Uruha's hair, tugging at it.

It was a relief, to be able to forget everything around him and just lose himself in the pleasure of Uruha's body. Kai's moans mingled with Uruha's and the rhythmic slapping of flesh against flesh. 

Kai sat back, pulling Uruha with him to make him sit on his lap, and Uruha groaned darkly. "Fuck yourself on my cock," Kai whispered, and Uruha did - bouncing up and down, gyrating his hips, moaning hotly while giving Kai the most exquisite sensations. Kai reached around to close his hand around Uruha's cock, stroking it in time with their movements.

Kai had no idea how long they stayed like that, just enjoying it all. But eventually he couldn't last - he could feel his orgasm getting closer and closer, until he couldn't hold it off anymore. He stroked Uruha faster while emptying himself inside him, moaning as Uruha's arse clenched around him...

Then Uruha stilled, breathing heavily and Kai felt his warm essence flow over his hand as well.

Kai untied Uruha's wrists, and when they'd had a minute or two to catch their breath, he turned to Uruha. "I didn't know you were trained here at the Guild too." Of course he'd known that Uruha was a member of the Guild - anyone in their profession that wanted to roam freely across the city were - but he'd never seen him during his own training. Then again, the groups were kept small, they trained in different locations, and they weren't exactly encouraged to make friends among their peers. It was kind of hard to make friends anyway with people you practiced torture on, and who did the same to you...

Uruha nodded. "Yeah... I think I finished my training a year ahead of you."

"I should have known, I guess. Your style of fighting is the same."

"Tokyo Style!" Uruha laughed. "Or is it Gothic Love Style?"

"No. No, definitely not that." Kai laughed, despite finding the proposed name terrible. "Ryûden-sensei style. Let's keep the Gothic Love outside of work."

"But you have to admit it was a good idea," Uruha said and rolled over to pin Kai down on the bed. "Using one of these rooms."

Kai grinned up at him. "Yeah, you do have the occasional bright idea." And perhaps they did need a shower now... "How long do we have the room for?"

Uruha winked. "Until we give the key back to Miyuki-san."


	2. Chapter 2

Simply listening to rumours and keeping an ear out to what was happening on the streets was good enough for day-to-day business, but not when someone was actively trying very hard to not be found. In Kai's opinion, if one wanted to work in the dark it was simply stupid to leave a trail of bodies that could so easily be connected. What these people were thinking was a bit of a mystery to him. Kai preferred neat and well-planned situations, and what this opponent was doing was messy and almost sloppy. Yet, they'd managed to establish a foot-hold in the city, right under his very nose. Kai didn't like it. Were they actually sloppy, leaving evidence around, not bothering hiding the bodies, or was it all by design, making a point?

Now that he knew that he had to listen beyond the rumours it was easier; that he had to not so much put two and two together, but see what was missing, what should be there but wasn't. 

The bar was small and dimly lit, as if the owners had designed it as a venue for the shadier elements of society to meet. There was the bar where the bartender stood, slowly wiping one glass after another while providing a listening ear to the guests perched on the stools if they wanted to talk, and a couple of small tables. Kai nursed his drink while he waited for his informant to show up. Not because he couldn't afford another, but because he didn't want to get drunk. He was working, after all, and these days it could prove fatal to dull one's senses. Kai didn't want to end up in Tokyo Bay with a slit throat.

Someone sat down at the table next to Kai and he tensed for a fraction of a second.

"Got your message," the person said. 

"The bodies in the Bay," Kai said, "what's the word on the street?" He knew that if anyone of the 'regular' criminals would know anything, this guy would. Seiji, as Kai knew him, had been his informant for a few years now and so far, all his information had been legit.

The man shrugged. "Nothing much. None I've heard said they've done it."

"Anyone trying to get into the import market, new buyers or sellers?"

Seiji thought for a moment. "Nope. Just the regular."

"Any odd requests?"

"Heard a rumour of this one thing..." Kai waited for Seiji to continue. "Mind, I don't know where from or who, but I heard that there's an interest in young foreign girls. Someone asked where to buy one."

Kai didn't show any outward signs, but inside he felt a wave of disgust flow over him. He'd never liked human trafficking, and he was glad that the man he worked for didn't make that his business. With dealing with foreign goods too there wasn't only the regular police to deal with, but also Interpol and so on. Kidnapping tourists seemed like a very stupid and sleazy way to make business. "And is there anyone selling at the moment?"

Seiji drained his drink. "Nope. I dunno, maybe it wasn't serious."

"Or maybe someone just wanted to see if there's already a market," Kai said. "Let me know if something crops up."

"Will do. Anything else?"

"Other new players?"

"Hm, no. But there's been some old players coming back. Two brothers out of prison, used to work for yakuza but were thrown out. Seems like they have work again..."

"Not for yakuza, I think?" Once you'd been thrown out of a yakuza gang, there was no way another would take you in, in Kai's experience. There were reasons they'd been ostracized, and usually those reasons were serious enough that no other would trust such a person.

"Nah, for some foreign company."

Kai thought that was highly unlikely as well. Why would a reputable company, foreign or otherwise, hire two goons that had just been released from prison? "Find out more if you can."

"Got it."

Kai slipped an envelope to Seiji as he stood up and brushed by Kai to leave - payment for the information, and a promise for more once the man returned with anything that might be useful.

After a couple of minutes, Kai left as well, heading for his next meeting. This one in a tiny, unnoticeable alley between two business buildings.

**

A knock on the door interrupted Kai as he was adding some notes in the margins of the papers he'd been given - new information, rumours, connections, people to follow up on... He wasn't expecting anyone so he got to the door quickly to check the identity of his visitor, before whomever it was would accidentally trigger one of his security measures. Traps were good for keeping enemies out, but a little too efficient for sales people or a politician's reelection campaign workers knocking on neighbourhood doors. Random poisonings were usually frowned upon, even by the Guild.

Kai opened the door with a smile. "Uruha. Were you just in the neighbourhood?"

"Haha very funny. No, I came to see you. Can I come in?" Uruha brushed past him as he stepped inside, putting a duffel bag down in front of the shoe cabinet.

"Sure." Kai closed the door and followed his guest into the living room.

"I see you've been working hard," Uruha said, leaning over the table where Kai had spread the papers. "You know, this name has come up in my investigation as well." He pointed at a name Kai had scribbled below the politician's bodyguard's address.

"So, I'm guessing this is not a social visit? Tea?" 

"Thanks. Not really... Even though I wouldn't mind some socializing too." Uruha winked.

Kai headed for the kitchen to put the kettle on. Since Uruha had waltzed into his life, there had been a lot more 'socializing' than he was used to, making work a lot more interesting than it had been. He measured up two spoons of tea leaves into the small pot, then added the hot water. After a little while, he poured the finished green tea into two small cups, put them on a tray and carried them into the room.

"Here you go." He placed one of the cups in front of Uruha and took a seat next to him on the couch. "An exchange of information then?"

Uruha nodded as blew on his tea before taking a sip. "First, I talked to Ryûden-sensei earlier. He's lost contact with one of the others. They haven't checked in, and he fears the worst."

Kai frowned. That was worrying. They'd all been chosen because they were the best. That one of them would just vanish... "Could have been getting too close then. This is not good."

"Yeah. I also found out about something, a guy I'm paying in another organization told me about this sale of an estate that his boss had brokered, with quite a good profit."

Kai shrugged. "Property is bought and sold every day. What makes this one any different?"

"It's a newly renovated traditional house, complete with inner courtyard, servants' quarters, and high walls around the garden... and it was bought by a foreign company."

"A foreign company?" Could it be the same as the one Seiji had mentioned in passing?

"The deal had been handled by a broker, of course, but my guy said that even though the company was foreign, with a foreign bank account, they'd referred to the owner or CEO as 'Takamura-san'"

"Still not strange enough," Kai insisted. "There are plenty of foreign companies with a leader with a Japanese-sounding name. Just look at Brazil..."

"True. But this one, he'd been present at the signing of the contract for some reason, just sitting there as if he'd been presiding over some important meeting, but never said a word, letting his guys do all the talking and everything. And he didn't look Japanese at all."

Now Kai got a little more interested. "So, this Takamura-san is not of Japanese descent?"

"Not sure, he could be half. But my guy said he looked like a gaijin, a foreigner."

"It could be a fake name then..."

Uruha nodded. "And he acts like some yakuza boss in a bad movie."

"Have you reported this information to Ryûden-sensei?"

Uruha nodded. "Yeah... I gave him everything, including the address of the house."

"And?"

Uruha grinned. "He said to not go investigate alone."

"Ah." Kai smiled. "So that's why you're here."

"Yeah. I thought you'd be the perfect backup."

"You mean that you'd give this mission to me and then you'd be the backup, I'm sure?" Kai teased.

"We can back up each other?" Uruha replied with a laugh. "Anyway, I think we'd make a good team."

**

Kai hadn't geared up together with someone since his training days, and hadn't really missed it either. But it was nice to watch Uruha go through the same meticulous preparations as Kai did; it was obvious that they'd had the same teachers. In some way, it also made him feel like they actually were a team, of sorts, working together.

After they'd geared up, they got into Uruha's car and he drove them close to their destination. They parked the car behind a neighbouring house, under the cover of a few trees. It was a nice neighbourhood, on the very outskirts of the city, where there were still some old, traditional houses left standing. The houses were big, with large walled-off gardens, lying side by side. The one they were interested in was the last one, flanked on one side by the house where they'd hidden the car and on the other by fields and trees. The area looked like it had been untouched by modern times, and they could just as well have stepped into an era before the Meiji Restoration... All that was missing was a ronin wandering down the road looking for employment, or trouble.

Kai gestured to the other side of the road, where there was a low hill not too far away. "Let's check the house from over there first."

Uruha nodded and they strapped their short swords to their backs and made their way up the hill in silence. It wasn't the best vantage point, but they had to work with what they had. At least they had some elevation and could see a little bit of the house and the surrounding garden.

There was enough vegetation to provide some cover for them as they lay down to observe their target. Through his binoculars Kai scanned as much as he could of the layout of the buildings and pathways. A couple of men walked through the garden, from one building to another, but otherwise it looked pretty peaceful. 

"Hired muscle," Uruha said quietly, and Kai could only agree. They had that walk that you could recognize on a street, the 'tough-guy' walk, posturing for each other like they were competing roosters in a hen house and neither wanted to show any kind of weakness. They wouldn't pose any problem.

Another hour of observation gained them just the occasional sight of a pair of guards patrolling around the perimeter of the wall every twenty minutes, checking the gate, standing around smoking and cracking jokes before disappearing into one of the smaller buildings again. 

"Shall we go inside?" Kai asked.

"Thought you'd never ask."

"Since when do you ask before penetrating anything?" Kai teased as he silently crawled away from the top of the hill to stand up without anyone spotting him.

"Well... I might make an exception?"

Kai gave a small chuckle. "Don't bother. Come on. Let's see if we can find something interesting in there."

"Hopefully who's behind this company and what they want."

"And why the hell they're killing us off," Kai added, adjusting the small case of poisons at his belt. One last check of their equipment, and they turned toward the walled estate. "Okay, front or back?"

"Back," Uruha replied, and Kai could almost hear the smile in his voice. Of course, always the backdoor...


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains violence.

Climbing the wall was easy. That was the beauty of traditional architecture - the use of wood and stone and dried mud and bamboo framing made for excellent hand- and footholds. Modern buildings, on the other hand, could be really annoying to try to scale, all glass and smooth steel. So, after disabling the alarm, Kai and Uruha were over the wall and inside the garden in a matter of seconds.

They dropped down on the inside of the wall with barely any sound. It was a dark night, and the moon was hidden behind clouds, making it even easier for them to blend into the shadows. A couple of bushes gave them cover while they got a better look of the house from this position. 

Like they'd seen from the hill, the grounds were fairly large, with the main house on one side and the gardens and a few smaller buildings on the other. Where Kai had expected a traditional samurai house, a low, symmetrical building sprawled instead. It had several roofs, and a raised wooden walkway that seemed to reach all the way around the outside of the house. It looked as if whomever built it had tried to recreate a house from a much earlier time; perhaps it was built for a samurai lord with an enormous ego who'd wanted to pretend he lived in a palace of the old days... It seemed to have a few modernisations - like the electrical wiring they saw evidence of as someone lit a lamp in the building to their left. The light held steady, with no flickering, so it was clearly artificial.

The men they'd started to think of as the guards came out of the building on the right, an unattached house that Kai thought might once have been a stable. They could see them clearly as the light from inside the house spilled through before they closed the door behind them. 

"… not fair that they get to sleep," one of the men said as he lit a cigarette. The small flame from his lighter revealed a brutish looking face, with a crooked nose and bushy eyebrows.

The other man laughed. "I don't remember you complaining last night when you were asleep and they were on watch."

"Hah, of course! Because that was fair to me!" They walked over the courtyard towards the front gate. 

Uruha touched Kai's arm and made the sign to go forward, and they moved through the garden, from bush to tree to another bush - quickly, silently, and undetected - behind the two men. The bobbing orange pinprick of light made them easy to follow, and when they came up to the front gate, Kai and Uruha stepped up as one behind them and took them both out with a well-placed blow to the back of the head.

They dragged the limp bodies of the men into the shadows between the wall and a small tea house that was situated by a pond and secured their hands and feet with cable ties. Here they paused for a moment, but all was silent apart from a slight breeze that rustled through the trees. 

Kai nodded at Uruha and pointed in the direction he wanted to go: the side of the main building, where the west wing stood in the shadow of the wall beyond the front gate. If this house followed the layout of the buildings it seemed to want to imitate, they could enter through the side and work their way towards the centre, where the master of the house traditionally had his rooms. The front door should be guarded, Kai felt, at least that's what he would do. That they couldn't see anyone standing guard there didn't mean there wasn't another alarm installed, and he'd prefer if they didn't get detected immediately.

They had no problems getting to the side of the building and the wooden walkway, and they encountered no more guards. Uruha silently slid one of the wall panels to the side, and they slipped inside the dark house.

Kai's eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, making it easy to navigate through the corridors made from the pale screens that made up most of the walls. Dark wooden floors gave way to tatami-covered ones where the screens divided the space up into rooms. A few rooms were completely empty, but they found one where three women were asleep on futons, laid out side by side. Kai quietly closed the sliding door to the room and they went on, heading to the middle of the house.

This deep inside the building they wouldn't have had help from the moon even if it had been up that night, and they moved a bit slower, shadows hiding inside shadows. Kai was alert, listening for any sounds, watching for any movement, and he knew Uruha was as well. There was a certain kind of comfort, if that word could be used, to work together with someone that he knew had the same level of training and experience, instead of the men that he usually worked with. He knew Uruha was right there beside him, but he could barely hear him. Their tabi boots made no sounds as they stepped carefully forward, their soft clothing made no rustling sounds - the only sounds that could be heard were the soft sliding of the screen doors as they moved forward.

They reached the centre building, and the sliding door opened to reveal a room furnished in a modern style which looked more than a little foreign against the paper screens and intricately carved wooden panels above them. The light was dim in there and they both turned on their flashlights. The spheres of the lights traveled over dark leather sofas and a coffee table with a couple of bottles of whisky and a glass. On one of the paper screens behind a sofa someone had taped a centerfold, and against one of the walls the large, dark square of a flat screen TV was perched on an entertainment shelf with stacks of old and new action movies.

Uruha bent down to get a closer look, then turned to Kai, holding up two game cases in the light. It was Ryû ga Gotoku 7 and 9. It was a good guess that 8 was lying around somewhere too if they cared to look for it. Kai smiled to himself. Somehow it was quite fitting that the person they were investigating now was obsessed with playing a tough guy from a yakuza gang; after all, wasn't that what he was trying to look like, surrounding himself with ex-cons and muscle that were former yakuza? Did this person get his ideas of what a crime lord in Japan is like from a series of games and movies about yakuza?

They continued looking around, and Kai opened the door on the other side of the room. There it was, the room he'd hoped to find, the inner sanctum with sturdy, permanent walls - the perfect place to store anything you wanted to keep safe in a building like this. There were a few book shelves here and a big desk. A thick carpet covered the tatami floor, protecting it from the wear of the wheels of the desk chair. Kai quickly got behind the desk and opened the laptop on it, while Uruha checked the books and the filing cabinet. 

The screen lit up to reveal a box demanding a password. Kai looked around the desk for a post-it note, but found only a few phone numbers. At least the owner of the laptop hadn't been that careless. He panned across the room with his flashlight. On the wall opposite the desk were a couple of pictures. On closer inspection, they were photographs. They were all taken on different occasions, but they all had one thing in common, one person that was in all of them, a man with light brown hair and western features. Could this be the mysterious Takamura-san? In one of the photographs he stood with another person, a friend perhaps, in front of the view of Mount Fuji. Kai narrowed his eyes. Could it really be that simple? No one in their right mind would use such a simple password, right? Kai went back to the desk. Seconds later, he sighed quietly. Why couldn't people learn to not use obvious and simple passwords? This was no better than the notorious "abc123". He put a flash drive into a port on the side and let it do its job, downloading all the files on the computer. If they were encrypted, he'd work on that when he got home. Then again, with a password like that Kai would be surprised if they were.

Not finding much else of interest, they left the office and went back through the living room. But as Uruha was about to slide the door open, Kai felt as if something was wrong and he stopped him. He couldn't say that he'd heard a sound or even seen a shadow, but he knew that he couldn't ignore his instincts. It felt as if someone was holding their breath, as if someone was trying to not be heard, just waiting for them... The moon had come up while they were searching the house, and there was now enough light in the room to see that there was no one else in the room with them even without their flashlights.

Both Uruha and Kai were still, listening, gauging the situation, and Kai couldn't shake the feeling that someone on the other side of the thin screen was doing the same thing. Kai and Uruha looked at each other, and Uruha nodded, drawing his sword soundlessly. Obviously, he felt the same way. 

As if on a signal, they moved simultaneously, Kai took a step back and Uruha slid the door open, and just then a blade sliced through the thin screen where Kai had stood just a fraction of a second earlier, missing him by a hair's breadth. With a swift move, Uruha was in the corridor and cut the attacker down. There was a light thud as the body fell to the floor outside. 

They sneaked back the way they had come as quietly as possible, barely giving the dead figure a second look. Kai had seen that it was someone dressed in black from head to toe, except for a dark-coloured sash around the waist. This was worrying. That had not been an ordinary goon, like the ones outside earlier. This one had had training. And with that kind of training and equipment, it was likely that he wasn't alone.

They turned the corner of the corridor, and were met by four similarly black-clad figures, swords in hands. When Kai turned his head to look behind them, another four came out from behind the screen doors on the sides, cutting them off.

Kai immediately drew his own blade from the scabbard on his back. There was just a flicker of a movement before their opponents were upon them, whirling blades glinting in the pale moonlight that filtered in from outside. Several of them were using both a short, straight sword and a dagger, and their attacks were vicious. Kai parried the first attacks, spun around and cut one man down before turning again to evade another attack. He didn't think, just allowed his reflexes and training to take over. He was aware of Uruha fighting next to him, but also of more attackers arriving even as they killed the ones in front of them...

One of Uruha's opponents crashed through one of the screen walls, waking up the sleeping women inside that they'd seen before. They screamed and ran out as the fighting moved into their bedroom, bare feet pitter-pattering on the wooden floorboards towards the inner parts of the house. Kai was sure that by now, the whole house would be awake.

In the commotion, Kai and Uruha were separated - one pushed towards one end of the room, the other against the opposite - by even more arrivals. Attack after attack was launched against him, from both right and left, and Kai was hard pressed to evade and parry them. As he grappled with one attacker that had come far too close, he saw a blade coming at him, aimed for his neck. He managed to deflect the blade with his own, but in the process he'd left himself open to another attack. The grappler took the opportunity and Kai felt the blade of a dagger entering his stomach. 

He kicked out and he could both hear and feel his attacker's knee give out. The man gasped in pain and the dagger slid out of the wound as he fell. Ignoring his injury, Kai attacked his other opponent, and felled him with a swift stroke, then finished off the man whose knee he'd just broken. When he looked up, only he and Uruha were left standing, their gazes meeting across the bodies lying on the floor. Uruha gestured to him and pushed a broken screen door to the side to reveal a small inner garden with little trees and mossy stone lanterns.

Kai straightened up and sheathed his sword. "Let's go," he whispered, pressing one hand against the wound in his stomach. The tatami mats and walls of the room were spattered with blood, and it was impossible to know whose it was without testing, but they had to get out of there before he started leaving a trail of blood behind him. There was nothing to say if this had been the end of the attackers, or if there were more of them. But Kai didn't want to take any chances, and didn't want their attackers to know that one of them was injured and could follow the drops to track them and finish them off. He was very aware of the fact that several of his comrades in the Guild had ended up in the Bay with their throats slit.

Just like the outside of the house, there was a raised wooden walkway around the edge of the garden with a couple of steps down to it. Kai and Uruha quickly got in under the walkway and found that the foundation of the house was only protected by a thin, wooden lattice. Uruha sliced through it without a problem and they both crawled inside, into the dusty darkness beneath the house. They could already hear footsteps and it was only a matter of time before the whole place was swarming with people. With a bit of luck, they could hide under the house until everything had quietened down and they could get out without more fighting.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the GazettE, PSC, or Heresy Inc, and have no knowledge of what is happening in their lives, apart from what is revealed in interviews and on Twitter. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real events or people is purely coincidental. No disrespect is intended and I earn no money from this.

The darkness underneath the house was almost absolute as soon as Kai and Uruha had crawled around a corner. The floor boards above were fitted perfectly and in most places also covered with tatami mats, so practically no light filtered through. It was almost claustrophobic - barely room enough to crawl, dark and dusty, and with the weight of an entire house on to of them. Kai doubted that anyone had been under the house, inside the foundation, for at least a decade, probably not since the place had been renovated.

They lay in silence for a few minutes, just listening. Their black-clad attackers had been as silent as Kai and Uruha had been, but the ordinary guards and the other occupants of the estate were considerably more noisy, and they could hear footsteps running back and forth above, as well as the occasional shout or barking of orders.

Now that he was lying still on his back and he wasn't distracted by trying to not get killed, Kai could really feel the pain of his wound. It was actually the first time he'd been stabbed in the stomach so the sensation was new to him. The pain was sharp with an underlying burn, and he could feel how his jacket top was clinging more and more to his skin. That was definitely not good, as it meant that he was bleeding heavily. Kai knew that with the position of the wound and the length of the blade, it was serious, and that he had to also be bleeding internally. They'd just evaded pursuit from what obviously was a group of trained men, and there was no saying how long they would have to wait before they could move out from their hiding place. A lot of things could happen in that time, and while waiting, Kai was bleeding...

He fished out the thumb drive from his pocket and tapped Uruha on the arm with it. "Here," he whispered. "Take this to Ryûden-sensei or look through it yourself."

"What?"

"It's the files from the computer."

"Why are you giving them to me?" 

Kai sighed silently. "Because I'm injured. And you stand a better chance than I do of getting out of here alive."

"Let me have a look." Uruha turned on his flashlight, on the dim setting so he didn't risk them being detected. He panned the light over Kai's body and his eyes narrowed as he reached the place where Kai kept the pressure on his stomach. 

When Kai lifted his head he could see the blood that oozed out between his fingers. He removed his hand so Uruha could lift up his top to see the wound. "It's not good," Kai whispered. "I know. I can feel it."

"Yeah... I've seen abdominal wounds before, and this is bad." There was a tension in Uruha's voice that Kai had never heard before. 

"Go," Kai said. "As soon as the coast is clear, go."

"I'm not leaving you here, if that's what you're suggesting," Uruha said firmly and pulled down the cloth that was covering the lower part of his face.

Kai shook his head. "You have to. I'd just slow you down, and leave a trail of blood wide as a highway."

Uruha set his jaw. "No."

Kai uncovered his face as well, trying to look stern as he convinced Uruha he was right. This was important information and it had to be properly analysed if they were going to stop this guy. "Protocol says to think of the mission first and make sure--" 

"Fuck protocol," Uruha said fiercely, interrupting him. "I'm not leaving you behind." He pulled out a roll of bandages from the equipment bag at his waist. "We'll put pressure on it again, and then we're getting you out of here."

Kai put his hand on Uruha's arm. "Uruha... I'm bleeding too much, too fast." He was already starting to get light-headed from the blood loss and he felt like he was enveloped in the thick smell of his own blood. If he was going to wiggle and crawl out to where they got in under the house and then run and climb over the wall... Even if he could handle the pain, and he knew that he could, he'd just bleed out that much faster. "There's no use in us both dying here. Leave, and then get the bastard for me later, okay?"

Uruha furrowed his brows with a look of deep concern. "No. I'm going to save you!"

Kai smiled softly. Saving him? He thought of how Uruha had forced himself into Kai's life, how he'd appeared in the most unexpected ways, and how he'd pretty much taken him by storm, over and over... Saved him from doing the same boring work every day, spicing up even the smallest mission by suddenly popping up and dragging Kai into a corner for a stolen kiss or maybe even a quick fuck. Saved him from the solitude that he'd grown used to out of necessity, saved him from boring sex with people who were afraid of him, saved him from predictability and injected a touch of the unknown... 

He touched Uruha's cheek with the back of his hand. "You already have." 

Uruha paused, as if processing what Kai had just said, and it was like a shadow passed over his face. He shook his head. "Not if you die here." He started dressing Kai's wound as he spoke, carefully rolling Kai over as he passed the bandages under him. Then he took Kai's hand and placed it over the wound again. "Keep the pressure here." He took out a little box from his equipment bag and took out a small vial, checking the label on it. "I have an idea."

Kai smiled. "Are you finally going to poison me?" At least it would take the edge off the pain, he thought.

"No. Well, yes... sort of."

"Ah, well, I'd rather die by your hand than by those guys'."

"Uruha grunted. "I'm not going to kill you. If I'd wanted to do that, I could have done that a long time ago. The point of this is to try to keep you alive for as long as possible."

"Oh? That's contradictory to what poisons are usually used for."

"Sometimes you have to think outside the box. It _is_ a poison, and it _is_ deadly... but in small enough doses it just slows down the heart and all body functions, so you'll bleed slower. At least that's the theory. It'll buy us time." 

Kai thought about it for a few moments. If his heart pumped slower, he would last longer, and maybe they'd have a chance to get out in time... "But wouldn't I be unconscious?"

Uruha nodded. "Yeah. You'll just have to trust that I'll drag you out of here and carry you to safety." 

"And that would increase the risk of them catching you." This solution was definitely not ideal.

"I have no intention of getting caught. I said I'm getting you out of here and that's what I'm going to do." 

Kai could hear that Uruha meant what he said. And what choice did he have? Lie here and die while they were waiting for the commotion above them to settle down, or let Uruha try his plan and maybe survive? The choice was easy - Kai didn't want to die just yet. There were things in life that he still wanted to experience, things that maybe even involved Uruha...

"Okay," Kai said. "Let's do it. How much do I take?"

"With your body mass and considering how much blood you've already lost, I think half a drop should do it."

Half a drop. That didn't give them a huge margin for error. If he survived this, he had to ask Uruha what poison it was, because none of the ones Kai had been taught during training had this effect, as far as he knew. He watched as Uruha uncorked the vial and poured a single drop onto his fingertip. Then Uruha wiped some of it off and held out his finger against Kai's lips. "Have you done this before?" Kai asked.

"No, never." Uruha took a slow breath and his upper lip twitched slightly. "But some time has to be the first, right?" Kai could hear that he was trying to make light of the situation, perhaps to encourage Kai, or perhaps himself.

"And if the dose is too high, I'll die." It wasn't an accusation, just a statement, but Kai could see that his words stung.

Uruha nodded slowly, and the worry in his eyes was easy to see. "Yeah... but if we don't try, you will bleed out and die anyway." He raised his eyes towards the floorboards above them. "Those assholes up there have to settle down at some point, but I fear it won't be soon enough."

Kai nodded. This was not the time to back down - not if he wanted any kind of future. Or revenge. Of course, he could haunt the mansion and the guy who lived in it for eternity, but Kai doubted it would give him any real satisfaction. Better to survive and try again. 

His mind made up, Kai licked the tiny amount of moisture off Uruha's finger. The poison didn't taste of anything really, didn't burn, didn't tingle. It must be undetectable for a victim and it worked quite fast, Kai reflected as he could feel his heart rate slow down and his limbs getting heavier. During training they'd of course had to test different poisons, with antidotes close at hand, to learn how it felt and how long it took, in case they themselves should be poisoned. This one didn't feel like any of them. Perhaps it was the low dosage, but it felt more like just being increasingly fatigued and tired as his organs were deprived of oxygen. He felt dizzy, and even more lightheaded than before, and his arms and legs were getting numb.

"Be careful," he whispered, words already starting to feel far away and hard to string together. Maybe Uruha's flashlight was giving out, because it seemed like everything was getting darker. There was something else he wanted to say, but he couldn't remember anymore, and just as he closed his eyes, he realized this might have been the last time he saw Uruha's face, and it was only if Uruha succeeded and also managed to get him under medical care that he would wake up again. He wouldn't know if he died. The thought made him sad.

"I will, and I will get you out of here," Uruha whispered, and it was the last thing Kai heard before everything went black and he lost consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the GazettE, PSC, or Heresy Inc, and have no knowledge of what is happening in their lives, apart from what is revealed in interviews and on their social media. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real events or people is purely coincidental. No disrespect is intended and I earn no money from this.

Uruha watched Kai's eyes closing, and reached for his wrist to check his pulse. "I will get you out of here," he promised Kai, not knowing if he could still hear him or if darkness had already swallowed his consciousness.

For a short moment, Uruha couldn't feel Kai's pulse, and his throat tightened and he got an icy feeling in the pit of his stomach. If it had failed, if he'd given Kai too much of the poison despite being careful... Then he felt a faint, slow pulse and he could breathe again. It had worked, and Kai's heart was simply beating so slowly that he'd missed it at first. But even though he'd bought them some time in this manner, every second was precious. Any thoughts he had about how and why they'd ended up in this situation were pushed aside. He'd deal with those later. He had to focus fully on what he needed to do right now. To go back the way they'd come wouldn't work - he'd either have to carry Kai all around the building to get to where they'd climbed over the wall, or he would have to climb the wall on that side and then carry Kai around on the outside, with all these people looking for them and god knew how many more ninja types waiting to kill them... Uruha decided that he needed to get closer to their exit point without being seen.

He quickly checked on Kai's bandages, then tied Kai's wrists together so his arms wouldn't flop around and either get in the way or get caught on anything while Uruha was carrying him to safety. After a last check to make sure he had all their equipment, including the thumb drive that Kai had tried to give him earlier, Uruha took out a short length of rope and slung it around Kai's shoulders and under his armpits, then tied the ends together. With this, he pulled Kai with him as he slowly made his way through the crawlspace under the house. It was slow going with the extra weight, but he made progress, carefully dragging Kai along. Even though people were still running around on top of them, he didn't want to wait, and the sound of their footsteps masked any accidental sounds that he made. 

After what felt like an eternity but was probably not more than ten minutes, Uruha was finally at the front of the house. He looked out through the wooden lattice to the court yard and garden beyond. It was lit up now, lamps both in the yard and inside the house casting their brightness over the paths and much of the front of the house. Uruha sent a quick thought of gratefulness to the landscaper who'd planted big bushes on both sides of the entrance way. They gave him the cover that he needed when he cut through the lattice and pulled Kai out from under the house and into the shadows just outside the wooden walkway.

He checked on Kai's condition and, satisfied that he was all right for the time being (or as all right as anyone could be with a stomach injury like that), lifted Kai up over his shoulder. People were still searching, apparently taken by surprise that there had been intruders, because there seemed to be no coordinated effort, no one who was in charge. One team was running one way, another group of three was then searching in the same locations as the first group, while no one was anywhere near the entrance of the house... Uruha shook his head. It was strange to think that this was the gang that had successfully neutralized several of his colleagues in its effort to gain power in Tokyo. 

Two men then stepped out of the house, stopping for a moment at the entrance, just a short distance from where Uruha was hiding in the shadows. One of them looked ordinary enough, and had probably been asleep when all hell broke loose, because he was clad in sweatpants and a tshirt, his hair in disarray. The other was another of the black-clad ones, and now Uruha could see that the sash around his waist was red, red as blood. He had pulled down his face cover and looked grim.

"… don't understand how the fuck they could get through," the ordinary man growled.

"Apparently the alarm you installed wasn't as brilliant as you thought," the black-clad one replied coldly, getting a glare in response.

"Watch it! I'm not the one with several men dead! You've claimed over and over that your men are so fucking good, but how long did it take to wipe them out? Huh? How many have you left?"

Uruha stood close enough to see the black-clad one's eyes narrow. "Enough to take care of the problem."

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do with three or four men that you couldn't do with fifteen? We don't even know how many men we're fighting!"

"Doesn't matter. We'll find all of them and kill them."

"I'm not sure you deserve the money the boss is paying--"

"You take care of your part, and I'll handle this." The black-clad man interrupted him and left, heading for a group of men and started giving them orders.

The sweatpants guy swore and turned around, going back into the house again, and Uruha let out the breath he'd been holding. So, Mr Ninja had just three or four men left? Well, that was a relief. Uruha didn't want to be cornered again and forced into another sword fight. All he wanted to do was to get Kai safely out of there. 

Uruha adjusted the hold he had on Kai and quickly stole over to the next shadow with him. The bright lights only made the shadows deeper, and actually made it easier to blend in. Little by little, he made his way towards the back gate again, but then one of the search teams headed straight for the trees where he was hiding. Uruha froze in place, hoping that the lights would have made the men a bit night-blind and wouldn't be able to discern shapes in the shadows. He cursed his bad luck as they were only a few steps away, seemingly intent on searching every inch of this corner of the garden. He could feel his heartbeat, hear it thumping in his ears, and it was almost impossible that they couldn't hear it as well, it was so loud to him. 

But then someone yelled by the front gate, and the two men started running in that direction, soon joined by other search teams as well. Uruha could only guess that they'd found the two guards that he and Kai had tied up over there.

Uruha immediately grabbed the opportunity and zig-zagged through the garden with his burden, keeping to the deepest shadows and heading for the back wall. He propped Kai up sitting against the wall and tied a longer rope around the one he'd secured around Kai's shoulders. Holding on to the end of the rope, Uruha jumped up and grabbed the edge, pulling himself up to straddle the top of the wall. By pulling on the rope, he lifted Kai up from the ground, until he could ease him over the edge and then lower him down onto the ground on the other side. Maybe he could have jumped down with Kai over his shoulder, but he didn't want to risk jostling Kai too much. Kai was tough, Uruha knew that through their interactions, but a stomach wound was a stomach wound, no matter your level of training.

Once Uruha was down on the ground as well, he slung Kai over his shoulder again. It seemed to be at the last minute he'd made it over, because upset voices and footsteps were coming closer again. He was standing in a dark front yard - none of the inhabitants of this house seemed to have noticed anything strange going on at their neighbour's because all was still and silent here. Maybe his luck wasn't so bad after all, because the moon was once again hidden by clouds. The car was just on the other side, and Uruha half-ran across the grass and out through a simple, unlocked gate onto the road and to the little group of trees where they'd parked.

He set Kai down in the front passenger seat and buckled him in. When he straightened up, Uruha realized that his hands, his jacket and sleeve were wet with blood, Kai's blood, and he checked Kai's pulse again. "Don't die on me now," he whispered. Satisfied that there was still a heartbeat, he hurried to get into the driver's seat and pulled out his phone from its hiding place in a locked compartment under the seat. "Call the doctor," he said as he started the car and backed out onto the road. The phone screen lit up and the call was made, signal after signal going through.

If they'd been closer to the Guild, he would have taken Kai there, because they had an excellent physician, ready to deal with anything and everything. But they were on the outskirts of Tokyo, on the wrong side... Driving through Tokyo to get to the Guild headquarters, even at this hour, would take far too long. "Come on, pick up!" Uruha muttered as he raced towards the city, hands tightening on the steering wheel.

"Mmhello?" a sleepy voice mumbled finally.

"Hey, it's me. I'm sorry to wake you up, I know it's very late."

"Uruha?" Uruha could practically hear the man on the other end sit up straight in surprise. It had been a very long time since they'd been in contact. "Are you hurt?"

"Not me, but I need your help. This guy will die if he doesn't get medical care immediately. I wouldn't bother you but my regular place is too far." After a slight pause, Uruha added, "Please?"

There was a deep sigh on the other end. "Okay. Where?"

"My place. I'm on my way, so if I'm not there yet when you arrive, just wait for me."

"Okay."

The line went dead and Uruha glanced at Kai. His head was lolling from side to side as Uruha took the curves, and he was pale as a sheet. Uruha didn't think that it was only because of the contrast against his black hood and clothes. Kai had lost too much blood already, Uruha knew that. But now there would be a doctor, a good doctor, waiting for them, and maybe it would be in time... They still had a chance.

"Hold on, Kai," Uruha muttered through gritted teeth as he passed a truck and zipped in front of it, barely missing oncoming traffic. "Just a little longer."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the GazettE, PSC, or Heresy Inc, and have no knowledge of what is happening in their lives, apart from what is revealed in interviews and on their social media. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real events or people is purely coincidental. No disrespect is intended and I earn no money from this.

Uruha felt like it took forever to drive home. The last few turns before Uruha pulled up outside the building where he lived were torture. The street was quiet and empty, and no lights on in his neighbours' windows. He didn't waste any time getting Kai out of the car as soon as he'd parked. 

"What do we have?" a voice asked right next to him.

"Stab wound to the abdomen," Uruha replied. "He's lost a lot of blood."

"Okay, I'll help you carry him."

"Thanks, Aoi." Uruha quickly unlocked the front door and disarmed the traps almost on automatic, he'd done it so many times. They carried Kai inside and Uruha just swiped whatever was on the kitchen table off so they could lay Kai on it. It didn't matter. He could clean it up later, along with the blood. "I'm sorry it's not a sterile environment..."

"I didn't expect it to be," Aoi replied as he cut Kai's top open and then the bandages to get a look at the wound. "It's okay, it's not a disaster zone, at least." He examined him quickly and then looked up at Uruha. "What's this?" He checked Kai's pulse again. "He's vitals are slower than I'd expect, even with an injury like this, and he's barely breathing."

"I used something to slow everything down, to buy us some time," Uruha said. "I had to do something."

"Good thing you did," Aoi said and laid out his instruments on a cloth on a chair. "How much longer will it last?"

"I'm not sure, never done it before. Maybe an hour. It's not an exact science..."

Aoi shook his head in disapproval. "You take too many risks. As usual."

"It was either that or he would have died right there," Uruha said, clenching his jaw. This was not the time to have an argument. "Can you help him?"

Aoi nodded. "I'll do my best." He quickly wiped off the blood around the wound and used a sterilized pad and rubbing alcohol to clean the area around it. "It's pretty deep."

"He said that there's internal bleeding... Before he passed out, I mean."

"Well, he's right. I'm going to have to widen the incision to repair whatever damage has been done inside."

Aoi started working, and Uruha followed any orders he got, assisting him. Uruha knew quite a bit about how the body worked, its weaknesses and where to do most damage, and of course he knew first aid. But this kind of injury demanded the kind of skill and expertise that only an experienced doctor had, and Uruha trusted Aoi to know what to do. When Aoi told him to wipe, Uruha wiped. When Aoi told him to hand him the scalpel, Uruha did so. When Uruha was told to use the portable suction device to get the blood out of the abdominal cavity, he sucked the blood out until Aoi could see what he was doing...

Aoi worked fast and with a focus that Uruha shared as well. There was something unreal about the whole situation, while at the same time, Uruha felt it was more real than anything in a long time. Everything was poignant - every move, every decision, every cut, every stitch... It felt like his first kill, and it felt like that one time he'd had to watch a member of his team fall down the mountain, unable to do anything, unable to stop it, unable to undo the events that had led up to that moment.

Uruha glanced up at Kai's face. He was scarily pale, but his features lacked that weird doll-like impression that Uruha always connected with a dead person. But how much more could Kai's body take? How much longer could he last? Uruha pushed such thoughts away and focused on what Aoi was doing again. He had to believe that Kai would survive.

Once Aoi was convinced that he'd repaired the damage done inside - organs and blood vessels - the work to stitch Kai up began. Muscle tissue layers and fascia were stitched together, and then lastly the skin. As Aoi worked, Kai's breathing started normalizing and when Uruha checked, his pulse was getting a little faster. "His pulse is steady, but very weak," Uruha reported.

Aoi nodded. "He needs a blood transfusion." He knotted the last stitch and snipped the thread off. "Do you know his blood type?"

Uruha nodded. "B. And I'm O so it should work."

"Universal donor, yes." Aoi nodded again. He wiped the blood off Kai's stomach, then applied a large sterile pad over the site of the injury. "Help me sit him up for a moment." They gently shifted Kai to a sitting position, and Aoi put a bandage around his torso. "Okay. Let's move your friend here over to the bed."

Carefully, they lifted Kai off the kitchen table and carried him into the bedroom and lay him down on top of the bed. Aoi asked for a couple of pillows and folded them and put one under each of Kai's knees. "It'll keep the stress off the abdominal muscles," he explained, then looked at Uruha. "Roll up your sleeve and get comfortable. This is going to take a while."

Uruha did as told, pulling up a chair to the side of the bed. Aoi had already put a needle and a tube into Kai's arm, and now he quickly hooked Uruha up to it. "It's not the best method," Aoi complained, "but right now it's the only solution with the limited resources I have."

"The clinic was too far..."

Aoi nodded. "In the state he was in, he'd be dead. I don't approve of the use of poison or whatever it was you gave him, but it probably saved his life."

Uruha looked at the tube that connected his arm to Kai's, knowing that his life was transferred into Kai's body, that without it, Kai would die. "There's a lot about me that you don't approve of," he said quietly. 

"Yes, you're right. Your entire lifestyle, your occupation, your... everything." Aoi made a sweeping gesture that seemed to not only encompass Uruha's home, but his life as well. "Look, you're living in a goddamn fortress! I know why you told me to wait for you, because I'd probably be poisoned as well if I'd even knocked on the door!" Aoi almost spat the words out. The calm and professional demeanour from earlier was all but gone. "I have no idea how your precious Guild is sanctioned by the government. It should be illegal."

"I wouldn't have called you, disturbed you, if there had been anyone else that I could trust." Uruha didn't know what else to say. They'd had arguments about this so many times before, and Uruha hadn't been able to change Aoi's mind then, when he was clear-headed and rested, so what could he say this time?

Aoi sighed and suddenly he looked a little deflated. "How long has it been? Three years? Four? I haven't heard a word from you. You could have been dead for all I know!" He pointed at Kai, lying pale and still unconscious on the bed. "That could have been you!" He sounded more tired than angry now.

"I know."

"What happened out there tonight? Or can't you talk about it, like every other time? It's too dangerous for me to know, of course." 

Uruha shook his head. This time it was different - it was Guild business, not yakuza and shady as hell. "You know about the so-called Bay killer?" Aoi nodded. "Well, it's not a serial killer like the media and the police thinks. It's an organisation or a syndicate of some sort, and the people they've fished out of Tokyo Bay were my colleagues. We," here Uruha nodded towards Kai, "found out who's behind it."

"That went well, I can see," Aoi said.

Uruha ignored the sarcasm. "I found what might be their headquarters and brought Kai along as backup..."

"Hold on." Aoi held up a hand. "Let me get this straight. The two of you went in somewhere where you knew these murderers were and just faced them?"

"No, I miscalculated. It was supposed to be more of a scouting mission, finding out more about them. I didn't know they were that many, or that deadly."

"And you almost got your boyfriend killed," Aoi said quietly.

Uruha looked up at Aoi in surprise. "He's not my boyfriend." Where did Aoi even get that idea from?

Aoi held Uruha's gaze for a long moment, then a small smile played on his lips. "Look, Uruha. I know you're dense sometimes, but it's obvious that you care about him. You wouldn't have gone to such lengths for just a colleague. You carried this man out of a battle zone of some kind, with all the risks that comes with that, and you called me after all these years to get help, so don't tell me you don't have feelings for him." He went back to the kitchen to pack up his instruments and clean the makeshift operating table, leaving Uruha alone with his thoughts.

Boyfriend? Aoi was right in that Uruha had taken considerable risks to get Kai out of that place, but that had been the right thing to do, Uruha thought. Kai would have done the same thing for him, wouldn't he? Then again... Kai had been trying to get Uruha to leave him there, to save himself and the information they'd found. If it had been Uruha who'd been injured, would he be lying dead and cold in the foundations of that building? Uruha studied Kai's face. No. No, he couldn't believe that Kai would have been so cold and rule-bound that he would have left Uruha behind. Kai could be deadly and precise, but he wasn't heartless, Uruha knew that. Even if the mission was so important that it was imperative that the new information reached the Guild, Kai would have found a way, just like Uruha did...

Uruha closed his eyes. He was tired and he couldn't think clearly. Maybe it was the aftermath of the excitement, the fighting, the killing, and the tension. Maybe it was the worry, and the intense focus of the surgery. Or maybe it was the blood loss. Uruha felt a heaviness in his body, like he'd have to make a real effort to do something as simple as getting out of the chair, and at the same time, he felt light-headed and a little dizzy. 

He lost track of time while he was sitting there, watching Kai and the blood-filled tube that connected them, so when Aoi came back into the room to check up on Kai, Uruha got a little startled. Had he dozed off?

"That should be enough," Aoi said then and reached for Uruha's arm.

"If he needs more, it's okay!"

Aoi smiled and clapped Uruha on the shoulder. "I know you want to save him. But I also have to think about you. You're strong and healthy, so if he needs more later, I want you to be ready for it." He unhooked Uruha from the tube and then Kai. "You need to eat and drink something to get your strength back, okay?"

Uruha nodded. "Okay." He looked at the dressing that covered where the tube had been attached to his arm, then back to Aoi. "Will he live?" 

"That's up to him," Aoi replied. "If he survives the night-," he looked out of the window where the first rays of the rising sun lit up the sky, "the day and there's no infection, he'll probably make it. He looks strong, with good physique, but I can't guarantee it."

Uruha nodded. He knew how serious the injury was, with perforated organs and extreme blood loss. "Thanks. Really, I do appreciate it."

Aoi just nodded and opened his medical bag. "Here. Give him one of these if he gets a fever because then he might have an infection." He took out a pack of antibiotics. "And here's something for the pain. He's going to be very uncomfortable when he wakes up." He took out a small bottle of pills. "Just give him one of these, they are fast-acting, but no more than 6 times per day."

Uruha nodded again. "When will he wake up?"

Aoi looked at him. "Don't ask me. I didn't administer any anaesthetic... and I don't know how your little miracle drug works. I'm just glad he didn't wake up during the procedure, because that would have been a little awkward." He gave Uruha a wry smile. "Don't worry, it looks to me like he's sleeping now, not like he's unconscious or in a coma or anything."

"Okay... I'll keep an eye on him until he wakes up."

"Good. I'll come back later today, after work, to check up on him." Aoi packed the last of his things up and closed the bag again. "Ussan."

Uruha looked up at Aoi, surprised to hear the old nickname. 

"I'm glad you called. If I can help save his life, that's good."

"Even though he's an assassin, like me?"

Aoi nodded. "Even then." He left, first the room and then the apartment, and Uruha heard him closing the front door behind him. Uruha sat staring at the empty doorway for a few moments before his gaze wandered back to Kai.

"I'm sorry," Uruha said quietly, even though Kai probably couldn't hear him. In the end, it was his fault that Kai lay there, balancing precariously on the edge of death. If he hadn't asked Kai to go with him, if he'd done more research first to see how big their security detail was, if he'd asked for actual backup from the Guild before going in too deep... Uruha frowned, angry at himself for underestimating the enemy. Just because he and Kai were trained by experts, and were experts themselves now, didn't mean that others didn't have access to the same level of knowledge and expertise. He'd become complacent, too engrossed in the business of yakuza, and he'd forgotten that there were more serious things in the world, more dangerous criminals, that he wasn't the best. Still, how could he have known that their enemies had their own squad of non-Guild assassins? If they didn't want to be known or seen, no amount of questioning or research would have helped.

Uruha shook his head. Maybe he should do as Aoi had told him and get something to eat and drink, but he was tired, and all he wanted to do now was to sleep.

"Don't die on me now, Kai," he whispered and rested his head on the bed. He'd just close his eyes for a moment. Then he could take a shower, get the blood and dirt and grime off...


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the GazettE, PSC, or Heresy Inc, and have no knowledge of what is happening in their lives, apart from what is revealed in interviews and on their social media. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real events or people is purely coincidental. No disrespect is intended and I earn no money from this.

Pain.

It was a dull, unrelenting pain that filled his entire being.

Gradually, other things filtered into his consciousness. Like, the fact that he had a body, with parts that didn't hurt. Toes. Fingers. But the pain... why? Why did it hurt so much? Then a flash of a memory, a dark house, white screen doors, the glint of steel, tension, danger... The strange sensation of his own flesh being cut, pierced by a sharp blade. 

There had been a fight, Kai remembered now.

Kai took a careful breath, stopping at the point where it started to hurt, and exhaled. He was alive, wasn't he? At least not dead yet. Uruha had managed to get him out then? Kai slowly went through his body mentally, making the tiniest movements to feel what was wrong. His stomach hurt. That was the horrible pain that had woken him up. He was sore everywhere and he was absolutely exhausted. Strange, considering that he just woke up.

The flash drive! He'd taken files from a computer! Where was it? Had Uruha..? Uruha. Wait...

Kai forced his eyes open. He was not at home, he could see that immediately - wrong ceiling. This was not his bedroom. Uruha was on a chair by the bed, body slumped forward to rest his head on the bed next to Kai. He looked worn out, still wearing the same clothes, and there was a dark stain on his cheek. 

"Uruha..." Kai whispered, barely being able to make a sound. His throat was dry, his lips parched.

Immediately, Uruha woke up and raised his head. "Kai!" His face broke into a smile. "You're awake!"

"Barely," Kai rasped. "The computer files, are they..?"

"I have them." Uruha nodded, reaching out to touch Kai's shoulder. "Don't worry. You'll go through them yourself, and nail the bastards."

Kai smiled weakly. "I don't think I'm in any shape to nail anyone right now."

Uruha laughed, visibly relieved that Kai was joking. "We'll get you better, and then we will take them down together."

Kai nodded. "Thirsty."

"Oh." Uruha got up. "I'll get you something." He left the bedroom for a few moments, then came back with a glass with ice cubes. He picked one up and rubbed it over Kai's dry lips, wetting them. A few precious drops dripped onto Kai's tongue, and it was like the sweetest nectar. "Easy," Uruha said. "I know you want more, but you have to take it slowly."

Kai knew, but that didn't make it much easier. He felt like a dry leaf after a drought. His lips were cold now from the ice, but drop after drop trickled into his mouth as it melted and that was all he cared about. When the ice was all but gone, Uruha let him suck on the last of it. 

"Better?"

Kai nodded. 

"How's the pain?"

Kai grimaced. "Pretty bad." He usually didn't complain about pain, and could even find some kind of weird enjoyment in it at times, but this was different. Maybe it was the close call with death, his strength being sapped, but even when he tried to focus entirely on Uruha, the pain kept taking over, threatening to overwhelm him. When he'd been stabbed, he'd been full of adrenaline and he just had to escape, had to survive. But now, lying in Uruha's bed with no danger, no one trying to kill him, the pain refused to be controlled and enveloped him. 

"Aoi left some painkillers, but that won't work yet..." Uruha got up again. "I'll get you something else."

Aoi? Kai had no idea who Uruha was talking about, but he was too tired to ask. 

"Here!" Uruha came back with a small vial that he poured one drop from onto a sugar cube. He held it to Kai's lips. "This'll help."

Kai hesitated. He was pretty sure that was an opiate of some kind. "I don't do drugs."

"Neither do I. That's not why I have this. It's only for the pain, and it's just until you can drink water and the pills won't get stuck in your throat. Come on. Why be in pain when you don't have to? You have to be able to relax if you're going to heal properly."

Uruha did have a point. It would probably make him sleep too, and right now that sounded pretty good. 

"Okay." The sugar dissolved quickly, along with the drug, and soon Kai drifted off into a deep slumber.

**

Voices woke him up. Low, intense voices. Uruha, and... someone else. They were close, just outside the bedroom. Kai could see Uruha from the back, partly hiding the person in front of him.

"...listening to the problems of increasingly drunk strangers?" Uruha said.

"Considerably less risk of getting killed, and you'd have more time to devote to your personal life. You know, not fucking it up by being distant and secretive all the time. There's more to life than death, you know."

"It's not--" Uruha sighed. "You're always like that, Aoi! As if killing is all I do!" 

Aoi. So this was the person Uruha had said something about earlier. He'd left painkillers? The thought made the pain Kai felt a little sharper, but he pushed it away. There was a tense note in Uruha's voice, but he also sounded tired, exasperated, as if this was an argument they'd had hundreds of times.

"Eh, if he's the same as you, then maybe it doesn't matter. Just... Oh, I think my patient is awake!" The man looked past Uruha, into the bedroom, meeting Kai's gaze.

The man who'd spoken approached. "Hello, I'm Aoi. I stitched you up last night... Well, more like early this morning." He smiled and put down the coffee mug he was holding on the bedside table. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess..." Kai cleared his throat. It was still a bit dry, and that coffee smelled wonderful. "Alive." Aoi was quite a good-looking man - dark, unruly hair that was swept back, dark eyes, and full lips with a prominent cupid's bow. It was a mouth that Kai would describe as kissable.

"Good. Let's have a look..."

Aoi examined him and changed the dressing of the wound, giving Kai a chance to have a peek at it. It didn't look that bad now - a row of neat stitches - but he realized that Aoi must have had to lengthen the incision to suture him up inside, as it was longer than the width of the blade he'd been stabbed with. It was another scar to wear as a memory and a reminder of the dangers of his profession.

"Okay..." Aoi said as he put the finishing touches to the dressing. "Uruha told me he's given you some ice to keep you hydrated. That's good. You don't want to drink too much now, but you also need fluids... Oh, and wait a few days before you start eating. Keep it to clear liquids for now, broth and things like that."

Kai nodded. "I don't think I'm going to be up and cooking for a few days anyway," he joked. 

Aoi smiled. "Well, I know Uruha is not the best cook, but even he should be able to handle broth. Would be a shame if he rescued you just to kill you with his cooking."

Kai looked at Uruha who just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Also, you need to rest, okay? You too." Here, Aoi looked at Uruha. "You've both lost a lot of blood. And no sex for at least a week!"

Kai raised his eyebrows. That was a strange order from a doctor. Not that he should avoid strenuous activity like having sex, of course, but that it was said so bluntly. 

"Aoi, please... I'll take care of him."

"Hm." Aoi stood up. "Call me if you notice any complications - fever, redness, if the area gets swollen or there's a discharge... Otherwise I think he's actually going to be all right. He has a strong physique."

"Thank you, doctor," Uruha said. "Send me the bill later, okay?"

Aoi made a face. "As if I want to be paid for this? I did it as a favour to you. Old time's sake, and all that." He took his bag, nodded to Kai, and then left.

Kai looked up at Uruha. "We both lost blood? Did you get injured too?"

Uruha shook his head. "No. But you needed a transfusion."

Kai looked down at himself, then at the arm where he'd noticed the discomfort. There was a cotton pad taped to his elbow crease. That explained that. "So... I've got your blood inside me?"

"Yeah."

"Kind of an extreme way to share bodily fluids, don't you think?"

"Well, you heard the man. No sex for a while." Uruha laughed. He looked less tired now, more at ease. 

Kai smiled a little. He was tired as hell, but grateful to Uruha for having actually saved his life. That was quite the debt to pay back. "He's very straight-forward, isn't he?"

"Yeah... He sometimes lacks a filter between his thoughts and his mouth, but he's a good person. I trust him."

Kai nodded. There was something he'd wanted to ask, but it had slipped away and he couldn't be bothered to chase it down again. If it was important it would come back to him, he knew. 

"Does it hurt?"

Kai nodded again. "Yeah. And I could kill for a cup of coffee..." He looked at the mug Aoi had left. 

Uruha shook his head. "Sorry about that. No coffee for you yet." He took the mug away. "I'll get you more ice, and something for the pain." He turned around in the doorway. "Do you want something to... eat? You know, some broth?"

"Not really. But I guess I should." Kai gave Uruha a small smile. "After it stops hurting."

Once Kai got his pain under control and a couple of ice cubes in a glass, Uruha went back to the kitchen. Kai could hear him, taking things out of the cupboards, muttering to himself, turning on the stove. After a little while, there was actually a nice smell spreading through Uruha's apartment. Kai tried his best to keep awake a little longer, just letting his thoughts wander. 

When Uruha touched his shoulder, Kai woke from a light slumber. "Oh. Sorry... I fell asleep."

"Don't worry. It's good to sleep. You need to heal. I'm just glad that you do wake up..." It looked like a cloud crossed Uruha's face briefly, and then he smiled, letting the sunshine back. "It looked a little uncertain there for a while."

"Thank you," Kai said softly. "You saved me."

"I said I would, didn't I?" Uruha handed him a bowl and a spoon. "Thanks for trusting me."

"It was a crazy idea, but it worked."

"It did." Uruha sat down on the edge of the bed. "But I'd prefer to never having to do that again. When you're feeling better, we'll go over the files you stole."

"Give me a day or two... I don't think whatever you're giving me for the pain helps me think clearly." Kai took a spoonful of the broth. It wasn't terrible, and probably nutritious. He took another. He had a goal - getting back on his feet as quickly as possible and put an end to that guy and his attempt to take over Tokyo's underworld.


End file.
